Electronic office systems frequently provide for the sharing of information through the use of data repositories called electronic libraries. These electronic (shared) libraries are capable of being accessed by users of common networks as well as users of networks of interconnected pieces of equipment and progress. A user (end user) may be any person, device, program, or computer system that utilizes the systems for information processing and information exchange. Along with the increase in the number of users storing and retrieving information from such libraries are the accompanying problems of locating information once it has been stored in a shared library. The problem of later locating a particular document is further exacerbated with a proliberation in the number of electronic libraries available to a particular user. Instead of a single common repository, users may have a plurality of these libraries accessible on a common or interconnected network.
A SEARCH command is used to locate library information in these shared libraries based on selection conditions specified with the command. The SEARCH command provides a search criteria used for locating particular documents. Once the search criteria is used, it is discarded. A user wishing to search a plurality of shared libraries must reformulate the search criteria for each shared library to be searched. In a like manner, the results of a search are discarded after presentation to a user following execution of the SEARCH command. A user cannot specify that the results should be saved for later reuse. In particular, a user is unable to specify that the search results are to be stored in a document that forms a relationship with another document. For example, electronic libraries provide means whereby a document may exist within another document similar to a folder. A user is unable to specify that the search results obtained from applying a particular search criteria is to be stored within one of documents existing in a folder relationship.
Consequently, what is needed is a technique for saving the search criteria used to locate documents stored in a shared libraries as well as the documents located as a result of applying the search criteria.